Kyle Monger, who had 11 points and a 3-pointer with six minutes remaining, put it simply as well: “We said, ‘We’re better than this.’ “

And so it just happened.

Gunther, who led Palisade with 15 points, had players clawing at his wrists during most of his shots, many of which rolled in and out. So he did something else that final quarter. He grabbed three offensive rebounds, once pulling the ball down and flipping it back in to put Palisade up 42-33 with 5:30 left.

“He’s a confident kid,” Crowder said of Gunther. “He’s started four years. He’s a great shooter and I thought our kids didn’t give him many good looks.”

Tell Hawk and Taylor Schreiner led Hotchkiss with eight points.

Girls

Unfortunately for the Palisade girls, there was no fourth-quarter explosion.

Instead, Hotchkiss found the late magic.

Palisade led 23-15 with 35 seconds remaining in the third quarter when Hotchkiss (1-1) began chipping away at the lead with a full-court press.

“We started playing aggressively,” said Natalie Anderson, who had seven points. “We just figured out that’s what we should be doing to steal their passes.”

Hotchkiss took a 31-29 lead with 1:45 remaining on a turnaround jumper by Chelsea Hotchkiss, who had a game-high 12 points.

Palisade traveled twice in the final minute and Anderson hit a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left to put Hotchkiss up by four.

“We were up and we didn’t execute,” Palisade coach Toni Gunther said. “We didn’t handle it as well as we’d liked to.”

Hannah Talbott led Palisade with nine points.

“We know we’re a better team than how we played,” guard Emily Crow said. “We just threw the ball away too much.”